Black Spirits
by Tara-lov-Dr10
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are stuck on an alien planet. Can they get off before it's too late? And who is the strange slave they run into? My first fanfic, go easy on me. Paused for now, I'm too busy with school.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfic, so go easy on me. Any constructive criticism is welcome, and any help or advice is welcome too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who

* * *

Rose looked around at their new surroundings. It looked human, only most of them were bulkier than the average human.

She turned when the door of the blue box behind her opened, and glared accusingly at the man who came out.

'This doesn't look much like China to me.'

'Ah...well, close enough.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'Close enough?' She guestured to her surroundings. 'Doctor, This is about as far from China as you can get!'

'Oh come on now, Rose. You should know better than that. I could take you to the edge of the universe if you wanted further from China.' The Doctor paused for a moment as he surveyed the town. 'Hang on a minute!' he exclaimed quite suddenly. This isn't Earth!'

'I figured,' snorted Rose. 'So, who are they?'

His face hardened as he realised what they were. 'We should go now,' he replied.

'Why?' she asked.

'They're Seroscats. They build cities, based on Earth. Only they got their designs from slaves- human slaves. But that's better than you lot, I suppose. You lot took your own species as slaves!'

'Would they capture us if they saw us?' she asked quietly.

'No. They would think we were vistors- they trade with the Earth.'

'And Earth does nothing to stop it?' she asked, eyes ablaze with disbelief.

'Nothing much they can do. Besides, it's almost a favour. They take the homeless, the orphans and the criminals.'

She looked into his eyes and saw the pain there, pain and fury which grew as he watched a young boy, no older than ten, forced to carry something more than half his own size.

'Can we go now?' she asked, not wanting to pain the Doctor more.

He spun around and into the Tardis without a word, and Rose soon followed.

The Tardis materialised again, this time in an corridor- presumably someone's home.

'What!' he exclaimed in confusion. 'We're still on Syscrat! Something's keeping us here, and we can't leave.' he went back into the Tardis, then popped back out, frowning. 'And it's not machinery.'

'So what is it?' asked Rose.

'I don't know.' He grinned at her. 'Let's find out!'

She grinned back at him. She loved the way he was like a little child. Every new adventure- every mystery was like a new toy. Luckily for him, every day was and adventure, every day Christmas.

They strolled off togethor, through a variety of corridors that never seemed to end.

'This is like a maze,' she commented, trusting his uncanny ability to find the way, and remember it. It reminded her of a homing pigeon.

'Yeah, I noticed.' replied The Doctor drily.

As they rounded the corner, The Doctor found himself nearly tripping over a small girl. She looked up at him with an expression of fear and shock, and immediately turned and ran.

'Oi! Wait!' He called, and then ran after her, Rose at his heels.

She turn left at the next corner, immediately followed by a thud, a whimper, a yell of rage and then a cry of pain from the girl.

The Doctor and Rose turned the corner to find a Seroscat standing over the girl who was huddled on the floor, about to deliver another blow.

'Woah there, big fella,' said the Doctor, gaining the alien's attention.

The alien looked up in surprise. 'Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?' he demanded.

'Hello, I'm The Doctor. And I've come here to buy her,' he added guesturing to the girl.

'How much?' he asked, interested now.

'Name a price.'

'500.'

'200.'

'400.'

'250.'

'300.'

'275.'

'Done.'

The doctor rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a wad of notes. He counted 275 and handed it over, then turned around and walked back the way he came from. He realised the other two weren't following so he turned around and said 'Well come on you two.'

The girl obeyed immediately, and Rose, who had been waiting for her, followed too.

Rose studied the girl carefully as they walked. She always kept her eyes lowered carefully to the floor, and was so silent you could barely notice her. She had black shoulder-length hair and black eyes and a little smaller than middle-sized. She looked about 11-12yrs and was quite skinny, but that was probably due to the lack of food.

They eventually got to the Tardis. The Doctor, who got there first, went inside. The girl stood around uncertainly, unsure whether to follow when Rose ushered her inside. She let out a gasp, which was the first sound they had heard from her since they bought her.

As they got inside, The Doctor finished pressing a few buttons, and the familiar sound of the engines broke the silence.

'Where are we going?' asked Rose

'Where we first landed,' replied The Doctor. 'Now, first things first.' He walked over to the girl and crouched down to eye level. ' What's your name?'

'T-Tara, Master,' she replied, shaking

'Just call me Doctor,' he asked. 'So, Tara, how old are you?'

'13, sir' she replied again.

'Doctor,' he corrected again. He paused 'You know, don't you?' he asked, pressing his face closer to her. 'You know something strange is going on.'

'Y-Yes, Master.' she replied, now terrified.

He stood up suddenly, startling her. 'Doctor. Just Doctor.' he said in an experated voice.

'Doctor!' chided Rose.' You're scaring her to death!'

She pulled him out of the way and gently walked over to the terrified girl, who had shrunk back, pressed against the Tardis, looking on the verge of tears.

'It's ok, we're not going to hurt you,' she soothed, hugging the girl. She didn't seem any calmer.

'That's not going to help,' he told her. 'She'll have heard that before. That's how they do it, how they break the children, and the less... spirited. They sooth them. Until they have their trust. And then they jump in and shatter it. Shatter it in into a million pieces. Which is what makes it so hard to heal them. We've got to pick up every piece and put it back in place.'

He was gritting his teeth and staring into space, wearing the expression he always did when he was angry. Very angry.

Rose looked at Tara again. She was still cowering in the corner, looking even more afraid, if that was possible.

'Well then, let's get to work.' she said in a business like way, standing up.

'I'm sorry?' he asked.

'Well you said we'll have to peice it back togethor, so lets do it.'

It was that that he loved best about her. Her spirit, the fact she was always willing to help anyone, no matter how hard it sounded.

'Well then, let's do it!' he said, and gave her one of his heart-melting grins. He disappeared somewhere in the back of the Tardis, and bought out some food and drink. Water, roast chicken, potato and gravy... and chips.

Rose grinned. She'd be surprised if there weren't any chips. She had no idea what he loved so much about chips, but he always seemed to want them.

'Dig in, everyone.' he muttered through a mouthful of food.

Rose grabbed a leg and started eating. Then she paused and offered another leg to Tara. She accepted it, nibbled a bit, then stopped.

'Aren't you hungry?' asked Rose.

She shook her head.

'It's called hunger block- no not hunger block... but something like that. It's when a person... Well, I suppose it when a person 'gets used to' a lack of food. Then, if presented with alot of food, the body won't be used to it and she'll feel full.' He got out his sonic screwdriver and prodded around her head with it. Suddenly she felt ravenous. She finished the leg in seconds, then looked longingly at the rest of the food.

'Help yourself,' said The Doctor, guesturing to it with a half eaten chicken wing. 'Just don't take the other wing.'

She took some chips, ate them, then took some more.

'Leave some for me,' he teased.

She abruptly stopped.

'No, sorry, keep eating- I've forgotten the Seroscats don't have a sense of humour.'

Rose grinned. 'Well, looks like you've found someone who loves chips as much as you.'

The Doctor smiled back at her.

After they finished the food, the Doctor escorted Tara to one of the...er... how many spare rooms are in the Tardis? An infinite number, I suppose. He escorted Tara to one of them. She looked a little surprised.

'For me?' she asked tentatively.

'Who else?' he asked. He gave her a moment to take it all in. 'Well then, goodnight,' he said and closed the door.

Rose looked up questionling as he re-entered the control room.

Fast asleep,' he assured her.

'There's something on your mind,' she observed.

'When I looked around in her head with my screwdriver, something else got my attention. That kid has a signal in her brain, reflecting off the corpus callosum and the glial tissues, into the cerebral hemispheres, where it is beeing amplified into the world, creating a sort of cross between a telepathic field and a psychic network, with a radius of about...hm... one kilometre or so. It's brilliant! The thing is, though, it's not human.'

* * *

The babble about the brain thing was intirely made up, and I'm pretty sure impossible. Only the names of the bits of the brain are true, so... well... it's not true- well, not in real life. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I wish I did, though.

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What do you mean, not human?' asked Rose, chasing him around the controls. 'She looks perfectly human to me!'

The Doctor looked up in surprise. 'That's it! Looks! She looks human, but isn't. If I scan her, I'll be able to find out what she is!' He ran around the controls with renewed energy.

Rose snorted. 'You don't mean to tell me you never thought of that.'

The Doctor chose to ignore that question.

After a while, Roses curiosity got the better of her. 'Telepathic field? So does that mean she can read minds or something?'

'Yep,' replied the Doctor, not looking up from the computer screen. 'Although, being a very low leveled one, she'd probably only be able to read what is passing through our minds right now.'

'So why was she so scared of us? She must have known we didn't intend to hurt her,'

'I dunno,' he shrugged.

'And psychic network? Can she predict the future?'

'Nope. She can predict the present. The only similar case I've seen is in a Salenite. Although theirs is on a much higher level. They can read everything that is going through your mind, has been through your mind and is about to go through your mind.'

Rose whistled. 'So if you walked up to a Salenite it would know everything about you?'

'You, yes, but not me. The Time Lords are taught a special frame of mind which is protected from any intruders.'

'So she wasn't able to read your mind! Maybe that's why she was scared!'

'Why would she be scared of that?'

'Well, if all your life you could read the minds of everyone around you, then suddenly a stranger whose mind is completely blocked comes and buys you, how would you react?'

'Ah. Good point.'

'Wait a minute! That means she knows exactly what I'm thinking now, which means she 'heard' our conversation, which means...' she trailed off.

'Which means she knows I'm going to scan her,' finished the Doctor, 'So she should be here any minute.' He had barely finished the sentence when Tara walked in.

'Could you really tell me what I am?' she whispered in a barely audible voice.

'Yep, aliens are my specialty,' he grinned. 'However, it would make it ten times easier if you tell me all about yourself.'

'My father died before I was born. My mother died giving birth to me. Or, at least that's what I was told. I was bought up at the orphanage. Everyone's voices screamed in my head when I was little. I knew what they were going to say before they said it. I was always smarter than everyone else around me. They thought I was a freak so I learned to hide it- my intelligence, my telepathic abilities, everything. Then, when I was five, they came and took me away. Me and everyone else over five. I knew what they did, I knew their lies. I pretended. Pretended to trust them, and then have my trust broken. Acted like everyone else around me,' she grinned slightly. 'You get pretty good at pretending after eight years.'

'So I noticed,' commented the Doctor.

'But all this time pretending, I've always wanted to know what I really was.'

'Well then, time to find out,' the Doctor turned around and pulled out something that looked like a barcode scanner and waved it around somewhat cautiously. Tara noticed and asked why.

'Well, the last time I did this to someone, I got slapped, 'he said, rubbing his cheek ruefully as the memory came back. Tara grinned.

'I've never slapped anyone, and I'm not about to start on you,' she assured.

The Doctor stiffened.

'What?' asked Rose.

'She's got two hearts.'

Rose gasped.

'Most creatures don't have two hearts?' asked Tara, surprised. But you have two hearts. So I'm a Time Lord?'

Rose opened her mouth to ask, but Tara interrupted.

'I read minds, remember?' she grinned. 'I read yours.'

The Doctor let out a gasp. ' What? But that's impossible!'

'No it's not,' frowned Rose. 'You said so yourself.'

'No, not that, this.' He was staring at the computer screen, which showed the readings of the scan. 'She's a...' he trailed off a bit.

Tara immediately turned her attention to the Doctor.

'Who am I?'

The Doctor looked her straight in the eye.

'You're an experiment.'

* * *

Sorry, I couldn't resist the cliffhanger. It's not that big a one I guess... 

It's such a short chapter...

Next chapter coming soon, hopefully it'll be longer.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing here but my character Tara and the plot.

* * *

The Doctor settled back in his chair. The Tardis had even provided them with a fire place to get the Doctor into a story time mood, and they were all seated around it, sharing a plate of chips. 

'Before the war, the last great Time War, there was an experiment: to create the perfect creature. That creature was to then go back in time, and kill Davros before he could create the Daleks. You see, several Time Lords tried, but were all killed before they had gotten any where near Davros. The experiment was to combine three races- the Time Lords, The Salenites and the Kranos. None of them succeed. Those that did died within a few days.'

'But why those three?' interrupted Rose.

'Time Lords for their intelligence, Kranos for their shape shifting abilities and Salenites for their telepathy and the ability to control the elements,' he explained, pausing for a moment to eat some more chips. He turned to Tara. 'Did you know you have complete control over your cells? That's the Kranos part of you. Your mind and body is one of the Time Lords, and your telepathy and control over the elements is the Salenite part of you.'

Tara attempted to let out a whistle. It didn't work. 'I can do all that?'

'Yep. Although your telepathy and control over the elements is much weaker as there isn't that much Salenite in you.'

'So how is she impossible?' interrupted Rose again, feeling a bit left out.

The Doctor glared at her.' If you would stop interrupting me, I was just getting to that bit.

'But wouldn't it be dangerous to create a perfect creature?' asked Tara.

The Doctor turned his glare on her, and she shrank back slightly. He immediately relented.

'Yes, very dangerous. The creature was to go back in time, and stop Davros from creating the Daleks. But if he never created the Daleks, there would be no need for the experiment, and the creature would simply cease to exist. It was the perfect plan.'

'So what happened?' asked Rose.

The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh. 'Do you want to here the story or not?'

Rose nodded and Tara pretended to zip her lips and throw away the key.

'But Davros soon found out about the experiment. He placed a bomb in a place no-one would have thought to check. When the bomb went off everyone within a hundred meters of the lab either died or was forced to regenerate. We lost some of our best scientists in that explosion. Every scrap of research was lost, along with the lab and the experiments inside. Then they waged war on us- The last Time War. We were too busy fighting and defending to redo the experiment. How she survived, I don't know.'

He sat back in the chair and ate the last of the chips.

'Mmmhhhmhhmhmmh?' asked Tara.

'Huh?' asked the Doctor.

Tara got off the chair and pretended to look for the key. She then got back on the chair, unlocked her lips and asked, 'So that's my history?'

'Yep,' he nodded.

'So can she do all that?' asked Rose, curious.

'All what?' asked the Doctor.

'Shape shift, control elements...' she explained.

The Doctor fumbled around in his pockets and pulled out a rock. 'Tara, move this rock without touching it.'

Tara stared intently at the rock and willed it to move. It wobbled and rose slowly, til it was above the Doctor's head. She lost control over it, and it fell back down, hitting the Doctor's nose on the way.

'Oi!' protested the Doctor, rubbing his nose.

'And shape shifting?'

The Doctor looked at Tara. 'Go on,' he urged.

Tara took a deep breath, closed her eyes and pictured an olive green panther with mottled green wings. She had always liked panthers when she was on Earth, and green was her favorite colour. Rose's thoughts and her gasp told her she had succeeded. The Doctor let out an appreciative whistle. Tara stretched her wings cautiously opened her eyes to see a look of open mouthed astonishment on Rose's face, and the Doctor was grinning widely and looking like a child with a new toy. Not that you could call a giant panther with wings a 'toy'.The picture in Rose's mind told her she was exactly what she imagined, only slightly larger- about two meters tall, three meters long and a wingspan of about 10m.

Tara turned around like a dog chasing her tail in an attempt to look at herself. The Doctor grinned and said, 'There's a mirror in the wardrobe- turn right, go down the stairs then turn left… providing you can fit, of course.' His grin became wider, if that was possible.

Tara growled at him, and then walked up to Rose.

A voice in Rose's head said, 'How would you like to fly?' Rose looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.'

'Relax, it's me, Tara.' There was amusement in her voice.

'How did you do that?' she asked.

'Telepathic field,' replied Tara.

The Doctor was looking at them curiously.

'She can say things in my mind,' explained Rose.

'Say something to me.' He asked.

'She can't. It's blocked,' conveyed Rose for Tara after a pause.

'Oh.' The Doctor looked disappointed.

'Yes,' said Rose, turning back to Tara.

'Huh?' asked the Doctor and Tara in unison, Tara in Rose's mind.

'Yes, I'd like to fly,' explained Rose.

Tara looked her up and down, trying to find the best way to get her onto her back. She gave up and simply picked Rose up by her collar and dumped her rather unceremoniously on her back.

She padded over to the Doctor and looked at him questioningly. He followed, swinging onto her back with more grace. They just managed to squeeze out the Tardis door. For the first time, Tara felt was it was like to be truly free.

* * *

'So, how do we get off?' asked Rose. It had been four days since they landed and the Doctor still had no clue as to what was keeping them here. 

He turned to Tara, who was more comfortable with them now.'Check again. Are you sure there's no presences in your mind that seem slightly out of place?'

Tara sighed and bit back a retort. It was the seventh time he had asked her that. There were plenty of presences in her mind that were out of place. It was screaming out at her, a disturbance in the atmosphere so strong she was surprised no-one else noticed it She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint it. She sifted through the voices in her head. Suddenly, she felt a sort of shift. Like a mind trick that fell slightly out place, then hurriedly fixed up again. She searched the area again. There it was again, the shift.

'I found something!' she exclaimed.

The Doctor looked up. 'What? Where?' He ran over to her.

'A shift,' she replied. 'Like someone was trying to cover up something, but it keeps slipping every now and then.'

'Do you know what it is?'

'No.'

The Doctor pressed a few buttons and took out some wires with little black rubber pads attached to the ends of them. He pressed them against her head, and connected the other end to the Tardis.

'Try to find it again.'

She concentrated on the area again, and felt the shift again.

'There!' exclaimed the Doctor, pointing to the screen.

Tara and Rose came over and watched as he rewound what happened on the screen. It looked like radar, with dots- pink dots, red dots and the occasional green dot.

'The circles show the 1.1598km of her telepathic field. The pink dots are the humans, the red are the Seroscats and the green are the other life forms currently here. See look, there!' One of the red dots seemed to flash green for a split second He rewound it, and then played it again.

'See,' he said pointing to the particular dot. 'Watch it.'

He paused it just as it flashed green.

'There!'

He tapped furiously at the keyboard. There was a beep and some Gallifreyian symbols popped up, and then some English.

'They're Black Spirits!' he exclaimed. 'Now what are Black Spirits doing here, and more importantly, why do they want the Tardis?'

'What are Black Spirits?' asked Rose.

'They're like the Weeping Angels. They're creatures of the abstract, feeding off potential energy. In fact, they are so similar some say they were what Weeping Angles were before they 'evolved' and became quantum locked.'

Rose and Tara stared at him blankly.

'Well, if you get the touch of a Weeping Angel, you get sent back in time. The Weeping Angel then feeds off the energy of the life you could have had,' he attempted to explain.

'So what does 'quantum locked' mean?' asked Tara.

'If a Weeping Angel is seen by any living creature, it doesn't exist. It turns to stone. And you can't kill stone.' He vaguely remembered saying almost the exact same thing on the video recording to Sally Sparrow.

'So what does it want with us?'

'I don't know.' And then he broke into that adorable smile of his. 'Let's find out!'

* * *

Sort of for StardustfromthePlanetGallifrey. We made a deal- she uploads, I'll upload. For anyone who hasn't read her stories, I recommend them to you. Especially if you ship 10Rose. She's really good at writing 10Rose.

I'm actually quite proud of this chapter- it's a bit rushed, I think, but otherwise I quite like it.


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